Study Desk

Now there was a man from ^(C1)Ramathaim-zophim from the ^(C2)hill country of Ephraim, and his name was ^(C3)Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

And he had ^(C1)two wives: the name of one was ^(C2)Hannah and the name of the ^(F1)other Peninnah; and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Now this man would go up from his city ^(C1)yearly ^(C2)to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of armies in ^(C3)Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the LORD there.

When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he ^(C1)would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters;

but to Hannah he would give a double portion, because he loved Hannah, ^(C1)but the LORD had closed her womb.

Her rival, moreover, ^(C1)would provoke her bitterly to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb.

And it happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the LORD, that she would provoke her; so she wept and would not eat.

Then Elkanah her husband would say to her, "Hannah, why do you weep, and why do you not eat, and why is your heart sad? ^(C1)Am I not better to you than ten sons?"

Then Hannah got up after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of ^(C1)the ^(F1)temple of the LORD.

She, ^(F1)greatly distressed, prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.

And she ^(C1)made a vow and said, "LORD of armies, if You will indeed ^(C2)look on the affliction of Your bond-servant and remember me, and not forget Your bond-servant, but will give Your bond-servant a ^(F1)son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and ^(C3)a razor shall never come on his head."

Now it came about, as she ^(F1)continued praying before the LORD, that Eli was watching her mouth.

As for Hannah, ^(C1)she was speaking in her heart, only her lips were quivering, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought that she was drunk.

Then Eli said to her, "^(C1)How long will you behave like a drunk? Get rid of your wine!"

But Hannah answered and said, "No, my lord, I am a woman ^(F1)despairing in spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I ^(C1)have poured out my soul before the LORD.

"Do not ^(F1)consider your bond-servant a useless woman, for I have spoken until now out of my great concern and provocation."

Then Eli answered and said, "^(C1)Go in peace; and may the God of Israel ^(C2)grant your request that you have asked of Him."

She said, "^(C1)Let your bond-servant find favor in your sight." So the woman went on her way and ate, and ^(C2)her face was no longer sad.

Then they got up early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD, and returned again to their house in ^(C1)Ramah. And Elkanah ^(F1)had relations with Hannah his wife, and ^(C2)the LORD remembered her.

It came about ^(F1)in due time, after Hannah had conceived, that she gave birth to a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, "^(C1)Because I have asked for him of the LORD."

Then the man Elkanah ^(C1)went up with all his household to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.

But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "I will not go until the child is weaned; then I will ^(C1)bring him, so that he may appear before the LORD and ^(C2)stay there for life."

^(C1)Elkanah her husband said to her, "Do ^(F1)what seems best to you. Stay until you have weaned him; only ^(C2)may the LORD confirm His word." So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she weaned him.

Now when she had weaned him, ^(C1)she took him up with her, with a three-year-old bull, one ephah of flour, and a jug of wine, and brought him to ^(C2)the house of the LORD in Shiloh, although the child was young.

Then ^(C1)they ^(F1)slaughtered the bull, and ^(C2)brought the boy to Eli.

And she said, "Pardon me, my lord! ^(C1)As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the LORD.

"^(C1)For this boy I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my request which I asked of Him.

"^(C1)So I have also ^(F1)dedicated him to the LORD; as long as he lives he is ^(F1)dedicated to the LORD." And ^(C2)he worshiped the LORD there.

Then Hannah ^(C1)prayed and said, "My heart rejoices in the LORD; ^(C2)My ^(F1)horn is exalted in the LORD, My mouth ^(F2)speaks boldly against my enemies, Because ^(C3)I rejoice in Your salvation.

-"^(C1)There is no one holy like the LORD, Indeed, ^(C2)there is no one besides You, ^(C3)Nor is there any rock like our God.

-"Do not go on ^(F1)boasting so very proudly, ^(C1)Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; ^(C2)For the LORD is a God of knowledge, ^(C3)And ^(F2)with Him actions are weighed.

-"^(C1)The bows of the mighty are broken to pieces, ^(C2)But those who have stumbled strap on strength.

-"Those who were full hire themselves out for bread, But those who were hungry cease to be hungry. ^(C1)Even the infertile woman gives birth to seven, But ^(C2)she who has many children languishes.

-"^(C1)The LORD puts to death and makes alive; ^(C2)He brings down to ^(F1)Sheol and brings up.

-"^(C1)The LORD makes poor and rich; ^(C2)He humbles, He also exalts.

-"^(C1)He raises the poor from the dust, ^(C2)He lifts the needy from the garbage heap ^(C3)To seat them with nobles, And He gives them a seat of honor as an inheritance; ^(C4)For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, And He set the world on them.

-"^(C1)He watches over the feet of His godly ones, ^(C2)But the wicked ones are silenced in darkness; ^(C3)For not by might shall a person prevail.

-"^(C1)Those who contend with the LORD will be terrified; ^(C2)Against them He will thunder in the heavens, ^(C3)The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; ^(C4)And He will give strength to His king, ^(C5)And will exalt the ^(F1)horn of His anointed."

Then Elkanah went to his home at ^(C1)Ramah. ^(C2)But the boy continued to attend to the service of the LORD before Eli the priest.

Now the sons of Eli were ^(F1)(C1)useless men; they did not know the LORD.

^(C1)And this was the custom of the priests with the people: when anyone was offering a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come while the meat was cooking, with a three-pronged fork in his hand.

And he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; everything that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. They did so in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.

Also, before ^(C1)they ^(F1)burned the fat, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, "Give the priest meat for roasting, as he will not take cooked meat from you, only raw."

And if the man said to him, "They must ^(F1)burn the fat ^(F2)first, then take as much as ^(F3)you desire," then he would say, "No, but you must give it to me now; and if not, I am taking it by force!"

And so the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD, for the men ^(C1)treated the offering of the LORD disrespectfully.

Now ^(C1)Samuel was ministering before the LORD, as a boy ^(C2)wearing a linen ephod.

And his mother would make for him a little ^(C1)robe and bring it up to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer ^(C2)the yearly sacrifice.

Then Eli would ^(C1)bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, "May the LORD give you ^(F1)children from this woman in place of the ^(F2)one she ^(C2)requested of the LORD." And they went to their own ^(F3)home.

^(F1)(C1)The LORD indeed visited Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And ^(C2)the boy Samuel grew up ^(F2)before the LORD.

Now Eli was very old; and he heard about ^(C1)everything that his sons were doing to all Israel, and that they slept with ^(C2)the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting.

So he said to them, "Why are you doing such things as these, the evil things that I hear from all these people?

"No, my sons; for the report is not good ^(C1)which I hear the LORD'S people circulating.

"If one person sins against another, ^(C1)God will mediate for him; but ^(C2)if a person sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?" But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the ^(C3)LORD desired to put them to death.

Now the boy ^(C1)Samuel was continuing to grow and to be in favor both with the LORD and with people.

Then ^(C1)a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "This is what the LORD says: '^(C2)Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house?

'^(C1)Did I not choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be My priests, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, to carry an ephod before Me? And did I not ^(C2)give to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel?

'Why are you ^(F1)(C1)showing contempt for My sacrifice and My offering ^(C2)which I have commanded for My ^(C3)dwelling, and why are you ^(C4)honoring your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the ^(F2)choicest of every offering of My people Israel?'

"Therefore the LORD God of Israel declares, '^(C1)I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father was to walk before Me forever'; but now the LORD declares, 'Far be it from Me—for ^(C2)those who honor Me I will honor, and those ^(C3)who despise Me will be insignificant.

'Behold, ^(C1)the days are coming when I will eliminate your ^(F1)strength and the ^(F1)strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.

'And you will look at ^(C1)the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all the good that ^(F1)I do for Israel; and there will never be an ^(C2)old man in your house.

'Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar, ^(F1)so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the ^(F2)increase of your house will die ^(F3)in the prime of life.

'And this will be ^(C1)the sign to you which will come in regard to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: ^(C2)on the same day both of them will die.

'But ^(C1)I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and My soul; and ^(C2)I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before ^(C3)My anointed always.

'And everyone who is left in your house will come to bow down to him for a ^(F1)silver coin or a loaf of bread and say, "Please ^(F2)assign me to one of the priest's offices so that I may eat a piece of bread."'"

Now ^(C1)the boy Samuel was attending to the service of the LORD before Eli. And ^(C2)word from the LORD was rare in those days; ^(F1)visions were infrequent.

But it happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place (now ^(C1)his eyesight had begun to be ^(F1)poor and he could not see well),

and ^(C1)the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was,

that the LORD called Samuel; and he said, "^(C1)Here I am."

Then he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, go back and lie down." So he went and lay down.

And the LORD called yet again, "Samuel!" So Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, my son, go back and lie down."

^(C1)Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor had the word of the LORD yet been revealed to him.

So the LORD called Samuel again for the third time. And he got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy.

And Eli said to Samuel, "Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, 'Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

Then the LORD came and stood, and called as at the other times: "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for Your servant is listening."

Then the LORD said to Samuel, "Behold, ^(C1)I am going to do a thing in Israel, and both ears of everyone who hears about it will ring.

"On that day ^(C1)I will carry out against Eli everything that I have spoken in regard to his house, from beginning to end.

"For ^(C1)I have told him that I am going to judge his house forever for ^(C2)the wrongdoing that he knew, because ^(C3)his sons were bringing a curse on themselves and ^(C4)he did not rebuke them.

"Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that ^(C1)the wrongdoing of Eli's house shall never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering."

So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he ^(C1)opened the doors of the house of the LORD. But Samuel was afraid to tell ^(C2)the vision to Eli.

Then Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son." And he said, "Here I am."

He said, "What is the word that He spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. ^(C1)May God do the same to you, and more so, if you hide a single word from me of all the words that He spoke to you!"

So Samuel told him ^(F1)everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, "^(C1)He is the LORD; let Him do ^(F2)what seems good to Him."

Now ^(C1)Samuel grew, and ^(C2)the LORD was with him, and He ^(C3)let none of his words ^(F1)fail.

And all Israel ^(C1)from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the LORD.

And ^(C1)the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, ^(C2)because the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

So the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle, and they camped beside ^(C1)Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped in ^(C2)Aphek.

Then the Philistines drew up in battle formation to meet Israel. When the battle ^(F1)spread, Israel was ^(F2)defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the battlefield.

When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, "^(C1)Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? ^(C2)Let's take the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that He may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies."

So the people sent men to Shiloh, and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD of armies ^(C1)who is enthroned above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

And as the ark of the covenant of the LORD was coming into the camp, ^(C1)all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth resounded.

And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, "What does the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?" Then they understood that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp.

So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, "God has come into the camp!" And they said, "^(C1)Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before.

"Woe to us! Who will save us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.

"^(C1)Take courage and be men, Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews, ^(C2)as they have been slaves to you; so be men and fight!"

So the Philistines fought and ^(C1)Israel was defeated, and ^(C2)every man fled to his tent; and the defeat was very great, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell.

Moreover, the ark of God was taken; and ^(C1)the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

Now a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day with ^(C1)his clothes torn, and ^(F1)dust on his head.

When he came, behold, ^(C1)Eli was sitting on his seat ^(F1)by the road keeping watch, because his heart was anxious about the ark of God. And the man came to give a report in the city, and all the city cried out.

When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said, "What does the noise of this commotion mean?" Then the man came hurriedly and told Eli.

Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and ^(C1)his eyes were ^(F1)fixed and he could not see.

The man said to Eli, "I am the one who came from the battle line. Indeed, I escaped from the battle line today." And he said, "^(C1)How are things, my son?"

Then the one who brought the news replied, "Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great defeat among the people, and your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas are also dead; and the ark of God has been taken."

When he mentioned the ark of God, ^(F1)(C1)Eli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for ^(F2)he was old and heavy. And so he judged Israel for forty years.

Now his daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was pregnant and about to give birth; and when she heard the news that the ark of God had been taken and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she kneeled down and gave birth, because her pains came upon her.

And about the time of her death the women who were standing by her said to her, "^(C1)Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son." But she did not answer or pay attention.

And she named the boy ^(F1)Ichabod, saying, "^(C1)The glory has departed from Israel," because ^(C2)the ark of God had been taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

So she said, "The glory has departed from Israel, because the ark of God has been taken."

Now the Philistines took the ark of God and ^(C1)brought it from Ebenezer to ^(C2)Ashdod.

Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into ^(C1)the house of Dagon, and placed it beside Dagon.

When the Ashdodites got up early the next day, behold, ^(C1)Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and ^(C2)set him back in his place.

But when they got up early the next morning, behold, ^(C1)Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. And the head of Dagon and both palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold; ^(F1)only the torso of Dagon was left.

For that reason neither the priests of Dagon nor any who enter Dagon's house ^(C1)step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

Now ^(C1)the hand of the LORD was heavy on the Ashdodites, and ^(C2)He made them feel devastated and struck them with ^(C3)tumors, both Ashdod and its territories.

When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, "The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, because His hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god."

So they sent word and ^(C1)gathered all the governors of the Philistines to them, and said, "What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?" And they said, "Have the ark of the God of Israel ^(F1)brought to Gath." So they took the ark of the God of Israel away.

After they had taken it away, ^(C1)the hand of the LORD was against the city, creating a very great panic; and He struck the people of the city, from the young to the old, so that ^(C2)tumors broke out on them.

So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And as the ark of God came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out, saying, "They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to ^(F1)us, to kill ^(F1)us and ^(F2)our people!"

Therefore they ^(C1)sent word and gathered all the governors of the Philistines, and said, "Send away the ark of the God of Israel and let it return to its own place, so that it will not kill ^(F1)us and ^(F2)our people!" For there was a deadly panic throughout the city; ^(C2)the hand of God was very heavy there.

And the people who did not die were struck with tumors, and ^(C1)the outcry of the city went up to heaven.